


under my skin (i've got you)

by Fatale (femme)



Series: post episode ficlets [8]
Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Fluff I guess, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-05
Updated: 2019-06-05
Packaged: 2020-04-08 08:10:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,141
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19103158
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/femme/pseuds/Fatale
Summary: Controlling magic isn’t as easy as Magnus makes it look; he concentrates on the candles, pictures them in his mind’s eye flickering to life as he feels the magic whoosh through his body like an electrical current, something alive and snaking through his veins. The candles blaze up, too strong. Half the wax melts before they settle down, small buds of light dancing above the candles.Lorenzo’s golden magic curls around Alec’s fists, licking up his arms.---Please look at the incredible art by @SeLBanewoodhere!





	under my skin (i've got you)

**Author's Note:**

> based on a tweet i made a while ago but i can't find now. set during the finale, i guess. we're disregarding everything we know about runes to feed my thirst to see alec do magic.
> 
> sinatra song, clearly.

The table is set beautifully. With a pang somewhere between regret and acute embarrassment that he managed to read a situation so fundamentally wrong, Alec realizes that it reminds him of the night he planned to propose to Magnus. He wonders if the memory will ever not hurt.

Maybe, he thinks, but it’s going to take a while.

Magnus twists the ring on his finger, a nervous tic. Alec likes seeing the ring there, likes the little insight it gives him into Magnus.

“Thought we’d try this again,” Magnus says, sounding nervous, “since I ruined the other night.”

It’s on the tip of Alec’s tongue to tell Magnus, of course, he didn’t, he was in pain, Alec understood then and understands now, but it’s not true. Magnus ruined Alec’s surprise, but it doesn’t negate the fact that Alec should have never planned it. Alec believed Magnus’ lies that he was fine, that he was happy because it was simply easier to.

The balcony is windy, the candles in the hurricane lamps snuffed out.

“Let’s not go back,” Alec says. “What happened is already in the past. Let’s just enjoy this night.”

Magnus grins. It’s still a bit more hesitant than he’d like, but they’re getting there. “That’s a wonderful idea. And what a beautiful night it is,” Magnus says, stepping up behind him, “but a bit too much breeze.” He makes a graceful series of loops with his hands and the wind dies down. He gestures towards the candles, but Alec stops him with a gentle hand on his arm.

Alec has a surprise for him and he hopes this goes over better than his last one. “Let me.”

“As you wish,” Magnus says, looking amused. He finds all of Alec’s mundane-ish quirks unbearably quaint. He adores it when Alec loads the dishwasher or does laundry, finds it delightful when Alec makes up the bed, tucking in the edges of the sheets with military precision, practically swoons when he finds Alec on his hands and knees, scrubbing stains up from his many rugs.

Alec bares his teeth. Controlling magic isn’t as easy as Magnus makes it look; he concentrates on the candles, pictures them in his mind’s eye flickering to life as he feels the magic whoosh through his body like an electrical current, something alive and snaking through his veins. The candles blaze up, too strong. Half the wax melts before they settle down, small buds of light dancing above the candles.

Lorenzo’s golden magic curls around Alec’s fists, licking up his arms.

Magnus blinks, staring at the candles, then at Alec, and Alec feels a warm flush of pride. The Alliance rune is fading; yesterday, he could hold a stele and finally feel the answering spark of his own underwhelming brand of magic answer its call. But still, he can feel the foreign pull of Lorenzo’s magic, and it feels good to catch Magnus off-guard once in a while.

Surprisingly, Magnus steps close and presses his nose to Alec’s neck, inhaling deeply. Alec’s eyes slide closed and he tilts his head to make room for Magnus. There’s a peculiar reaction he always has to Magnus’ proximity, lust with the desire to be ever closer, all shot through with a heaping dose of dizzying terror at the thought of ever losing him. It confuses Alec, soothes him, shakes him to his very core, makes him feel hopelessly entangled with Magnus and happy for it.

“You feel like him,” Magnus says hoarsely, his own cool blue magic seeping from his fingertips and flowing up Alec’s arms, warring with Lorenzo’s magic, Alec’s body a scarred battleground. “How did I not notice?”

“To be fair,” Alec manages, “you’ve had other things on your mind. Plus, this isn’t my magic. It’s not intrinsic, it’s not who I am.”

“It should have been me,” Magnus says, hands roaming over Alec’s shoulders, down his back. Everywhere he touches, Alec can feel his magic sink into his skin like Magnus is trying to heal him. But there’s nothing to heal right now; this is simply who Alec is for the moment.

Alec laughs nervously. “The next time we do a hugely illegal rune ceremony to rescue someone from Edom, I’ll be sure to do the alliance rune with you.”

“I don’t expect you to understand,” Magnus says. “You don’t get it, you don’t know warlock culture and customs but Lorenzo did, the absolute _slut_.”

“Magnus,” Alec says, shocked, eyes flying open.

“I know, I know he saved me. And we’ve made our peace, but he knew what it meant to share magic with another person. There’s a reason he did the rune with you and not Jace. He wanted me to feel him – inside of you.”

“You make it sound so sexual,” Alec complains. Lorenzo’s magic has gone dormant, as overwhelmed by Magnus as Alec himself often is.

“It is and it isn’t. It’s worse in a way. He’s intertwined with the very essence of _you_.”

“I’m sorry,” Alec says a little miserably. “I didn’t mean to ruin another night.”

“You have nothing to be sorry for,” Magnus says fiercely, “you did it to save me. But still--” his hands continue to roam over Alec’s body, cool and tingling, and his voice goes wistful, “--it should have been me. I want to hold you close and feel your body thrum with my magic in your veins, in your very cells.”

Alec’s eyes slip shut again, shuddering at the thought of Magnus everywhere inside of him, in the furthest corners of his being, illuminating and salvaging all those jagged parts of himself that he desperately tries to keep hidden. “Yes,” he says, swallowing.

Magnus’ hands wander down to cup Alec’s back, then lower, squeezing. “Come to bed and I’ll show you what my magic feels like.”

He sends pulse after pulse of blue magic into Alec. It envelopes his skin, sets him on fire in the very best way.

“It’s not about the magic,” Magnus murmurs, mouthing mindlessly against Alec’s neck, mouth open and hot. “It’s about you. It was an idle dream I’d had and I hate that Lorenzo got to share it with you and I didn’t.”

Now that Alec feels it, he gets it. This feels like Magnus everywhere, sizzling pleasantly under his skin. And while Alec would make the same choice given the circumstances, now that he knows the difference and if he only gets to experience the Alliance rune once, he wishes it had been with Magnus too. But there’s something large and important that Magnus isn’t seeing—Magnus wants to merge with Alec, to be in his veins, his cells, his very blood.

“Magnus, Magnus, you’re already here,” Alec says, stilling Magnus’ beautiful, restless hands and placing them over his thudding heart. “Not your magic – just you. And you always have been.”


End file.
